Sniffing the public mood.

 

Do they do it better in OZ . . .or not?

 

A contact of mine who lives in Sydney  last week attended  a demonstration across the Harbour Bridge in protest against the murderous actions of the IDF in Gaza (and the West Bank?) under the instructions of the Israeli government.   Both the New South Wales  State Premier (Labor) and police authorities tried to stop the demonstration on the grounds of “public safety” and did indeed limit it, but nevertheless 90 000 or so managed to a take part, causing minor disruption, but no danger and hardly any disorder.

Unlike the State Premier, the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Albanese, also Labor) is, according to my contact  “good at sniffing the public mood” and has described the march as “good for democracy.”  

This ability to “sniff the public mood” seems to be totally lacking in our own (supposedly Labour) Prime Minister, and his leading ministers, Rachel Reeves and  Yvette Cooper. I would describe them as “tin-eared.”

In the perfectly sensible policy of withdrawing the Winter Fuel Allowance from affluent pensioners such as me, they failed to taper the cut off-point to protect those just above the Universal Credit line.  In requiring opportunistic non-faming purchasers of land to pay inheritance tax they failed to provide an adequate exemption for “active” family farmers.  They have imposed additional taxes on employment, something they are supposedly trying to encourage, and appear to have abandoned their green credentials by licensing further exploration in the North Sea Oil Fields and approving the expansion of  Heathrow airport.

And they bang on and on and on about migration.

In the meantime the two-child limit on welfare payments remains operative and disabled people face increased bullying to force them into work without adequate support.

 I acknowledge that my circle of friends is largely limited to people with similar “progressive “ views (though here are one or two outliers) but my impression is that  “the British people” (a group Boris Johnson and has cronies loved to claim to represent)  are overwhelmingly horrified  by the continued  pulverisation of Gaza and its people.  

To put it crudely, one months retaliation would have been quite sufficient to “respond” in an “eye for an eye” equation to the October 2023 massacre if they must continue down that  primitive but counter-productive road. 

Twenty plus months and 60 000+ deaths is beyond all reason.

So why does our tin-eared Labour government use parliamentary subterfuge to designate  the Palestine Action group of disrupters as  terrorists?

 And why, when the prisons are already full and the justice system already stretched beyond the limit, arrest 500+ apparently  respectable citizens (average age 54, I believe, though I admit age doesn’t necessarily guarantee respectability) who are peacefully and silently exercising their right to disagree in this land which boasts of Magna Carta, liberty, freedom and enfranchisement?

Tin-eared indeed: public opinion woefully misjudged, (and expensively so  should the Supreme Court rule that the designation of  Palestine Action as a terrorist group was unlawful.)

Labour should remember what the party, and most of its members and supporters, stand for.  It is not just to rule the country rather in the same way as the Tories but  more efficiently more tenderly.

It is to protect the weak (inducing migrants), protect our freedoms, nurture our environment  and  create a culture in which all inhabitants have the opportunity to reach  their potential.  

 Labour needs more accurately to “sniff” the true sense of the public’s expectations and the reasons for our present acute disappointment.